


Say what you mean, tell me i'm right

by allyourpoison



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M, Louis and Gemma are the same age, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 19:53:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1440778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyourpoison/pseuds/allyourpoison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry likes the new boy on school but the guy, Louis, just only talks with him to tell him about the girl he likes.<br/>Or, another story in which Harry pins over her sister’s boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say what you mean, tell me i'm right

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Panic! At The Disco's "The Ballad Of Mona Lisa".  
> I started this story a while ago and last night the inspiration came back and I pushed myself to finish it before it runaway again.  
> Hope you like it :)

It was a Wednesday and Harry had stayed alone in the hallway after the bell rang. His locker was a mess and he couldn’t find his Art paper. He knew he had brought it with him that morning. It should be somewhere in the riot that had made a prey out of his locker.

“Hey, mate. Could you tell me where Mister Green’s classroom is?”

He turned to look at the person who had just talked to him. It was boy, a boy with blue eyes and an expectant expression.  Harry could tell somehow this boy was cheeky; he just got that kind of face. A very pretty face and, he glanced up and down, a _very_ nice body.

“Yeah, it’s... um, straight through this hallway, the last classroom.” He motioned pointing to the hallway at his left. “Are you new?”

“I am, actually.” He boy nodded and a second bell rang in that moment. “Oh, I gotta go. Thank you, curly.” He waved and nearly ran off to his class.

“You’re welcome...,” _lovely_.

In the following days, Harry saw him around school several times, but the boy only acknowledged his existence the first couple of times, and always from the distance. The boy  hung out with Zayn and his friends now, so he probably was two years older than him.

Harry found himself staring at him more often than not. His name was Louis, he had learnt. He was put in the football team; apparently he was so good that they put it in even if it wasn’t tryout season.

He was one of the popular boys now. Harry wasn’t what you’d call an outcast, but he wasn’t going to say “hey, remember me?” to Louis. For some reason he wanted to. He wanted to be acknowledged for being the one who had spoken with him first than every other student there.

xxx

Three weeks after that first encounter Harry was in the library with Niall. His friend was taking advantage from the free Wi-Fi service scrolling through his facebook page since his own laptop had broken, while Harry was actually searching for a book on the shelves.

“Curly!” He heard as he entered to the Italian literature; it was Louis. “What are you doing here?”

It was a kind of forgotten and hidden hallway, between the ones of French and German literature. The older boy didn’t seem to be looking for anything; he was just there, standing between the shelves.

“I’m looking for the Boccaccio’s _The Decameron_ ”. He shrugged. “What about you?”

Louis brushed and smiled to himself; it was a very pretty smile, his eyes full of crinkles. “I’m waiting for this girl...”

“Oh... _oh_!”

“No! No ‘oh, _oh_ ’!” Louis raised his hands, shook them as if denying Harry’s thoughts.

“Okay?” He wasn’t catching the older boy.

“I’m mean, we are not going to ‘oh, _oh_ ’. I’m just going to tell her that I like her.” He explained.

“Ooooh” Was Harry’s aswer.

“I was aiming for an ‘awww’, actually.” Louis said smiling.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. The girl with the sweetest smile and the cutest dimples is coming, you should be jealous.” Harry kind of was, if he was honest. Either Louis was really cheesy or he really liked this girl; anyway, he would like to have someone to talk about him like that.

“I am, mate,” Harry nodded. “Well, good luck.” He turned and was about to leave when Louis called him.

“Curly! Don’t forget your book” he told him grabbing a book form the shelf at his left and handing it to Harry: it was _The Decameron_. “The Seventh Day is my favourite”.

“Thanks.” Harry beamed at the blue eyed boy and went to find Niall. When he found his friend, he insisted they were to somewhere else. For some reason, he didn’t want to cross ways with whoever the girl Louis was waiting for was.

Xxx

Ten days later, on a Saturday, Harry went to the mall with Niall to help him to choose a new laptop. They entered on the store determined to not fall on any tricks; the blonde boy would got the computer he wanted to buy, not the one some seller wanted to sell him.

“Hey!” Great. They only were a couple of seconds there and one of them already was invading them. “What do you need, Curly?”

That was the moment in which Harry looked up from the laptop’s section to the seller: it was Louis.

“I want to buy _this_ Hewlett Packard” Niall said determined, pointing to a black one. Harry new about lots of things but computers wasn’t one of them, okay? So ‘a black one’ it’s all the specification we are going to get.

“Alright. Let me call Mateo to do the job. I’m only allowed to make recommendations and you seem very decided.” He explained and waved a tall guy to come over.

A minute later Harry found himself alone with Louis in front of the laptops. Niall’s gone with Mateo to the cash register area.

“You work here?” he finally asked.

“No, I just like to spend my free time here.” Louis only could keep a serious face for a brief moment.

“You know what I mean!” Harry accused.

“Yeah.” Louis laughed. “I’m only here on the weekends. I have no time during the week with school and all.”

After a pause, Harry asked. “So, how it went with that girl?” He didn’t really want to know, he just wanted to keep talking to the other boy. It wasn’t that the silence was uncomfortable either, but he wanted to talk to him.

Louis grinned. “It went brilliant. We are kind of dating now”.

“Kind of?”

Louis shrugged but his smile didn’t falter. “She doesn’t want anyone finding out just yet. She wants to tell her mother before she finds out from her little brother. Something along those lines.” Louis did the cutest little gesture with his nose.

“You seem pretty much into her.” Harry sentenced. It wasn’t only the big smile drawn on Louis’ mouth when he talked about that girl, but the way his whole face seemed into some kind of dream too.

“She got something special. I can’t put a finger over what it is, but... yeah.” He was blushing deep red now. God, Harry didn’t want to have this talk. They weren’t even friends, why he had to take it?

Lucky for him, Niall had finished his purchase and was coming towards them, so he had no excuse to stand there anymore. They said goodbye to Louis and came out of the store.

“Since when you and Louis Tomlinson speak to each other?” Niall asked when they were leaving the mall.

“We don’t, we just were making small talk.”

“Didn’t know he was so amicable.” Niall commented.

“I guess he is.” Otherwise, why he was told him about a girl he couldn’t tell anybody else?

xxx

It was a Friday when Harry came to the terms he liked Louis. He already knew he was into boys, no big realization there. He just felt the other boy so close, in a strange way. They had spoken a couple of times after the time in the store and the familiarity caught Harry’s attention. They weren’t friends and still he couldn’t deny the connection.

He was pretty sure Louis didn’t know his name. However that didn’t bother Harry; he was happy by being addressed as ‘curly’.

“Hey, curly!” He heard Louis’ voice in that moment, while walking toward the music classroom. Harry simply beamed at him.

“Hi! Don’t you have football practice?”

“Got cancelled.” Louis shrugged. “Listen, last bus is already gone; do you want a drive home?”

“How do you know I don’t live on the other side of the city across from you?” Harry asked.

“I don’t know. It wouldn’t matter, though. Besides I’m already counting with a free hour I wasn’t planning to have.” He waved off Harry’s excuse. “So, I’ll take you?”

Harry was tempted to accept the offer, but he didn’t like to miss extracurricular activities. They were optional; you were supposed to take them if you liked them. If you didn’t bother showing up, why would you even take them?

“I can’t, I gotta go to the music classroom.”

“Oh.” Louis looked down for a second. “So you are in the band? Didn’t know this school had one.”

“No. I mean, yes but-.” Harry made a pause to clarify his thoughts before expressing them. “The school has a band and I’m in it but it’s not like the conventional ‘school band’.” he made the quotation marks. “We are, like, a band, a regular band, that plays for the school sometimes. And they give us a play where do the rehearsals” He made another pause. “I just listened to myself and I don’t think I was very clear.” He said frowning.

“No, no. I got you” Louis said smiling fondly. “What do you play?”

“I sing, actually.”

“Oh, really? I’d like to hear you sometime.”

“Well, we are playing next month at Aiden Grimshaw ’s party. I’m sure you’re going.”

“Yeah. I’m going. I guess I’ll listen to you guys then.”

“I guess you will” Harry said nodding, for one moment he had thought Louis wanted to hear him sing. But he had meant the whole band.

“Well, I’ll let you keep going, then. See ya around.” He waved and began walking away. Harry continued his way.

xxx

He couldn’t concentrate in the entire rehearsal.  Louis had offered take him home and he wanted to hear the band; the older boy was clearly interested on him. Not in the way he’d like, but it was something.

They boys noticed something was off with him, so they called quits early. Harry walked home thinking about Louis. He needed to discuss it with someone. He needed someone to tell him that Louis wasn’t interested in him that way. Harry’s hope was getting bigger even without Louis giving any sings, he just couldn’t avoid thinking how awesome would be if Louis liked him back. It didn’t help that lately Louis hadn’t mentioned his girlfriend. Maybe they had broken up?

He opened the front door waving that thought away; Louis would have told him.

“Curly? What are you doing here?” Louis was sitting on his couch staring at him like he was some kind of mugger. Why was Louis at his house?

“I kind of live here.” He raised an eyebrow. “What are _you_ doing sitting in my couch?”

“I... wait. You are Gems’ little brother?” Louis said as he was standing up.

“You are dating my _sister_?” Oh God, this was just his luck. Of all the girls at their school, it was obvious Louis was going to be dating Gemma.

“Please, tell me you guys didn’t know already and hate each other’s guts to death” his sister spoke up from the kitchen’s door. She had obviously listened to their little exchange.

“Nothing like that.” Harry said before thinking. “Louis had told me the loveliest things about you, without knowing I was your brother.” Harry tried to dissimulate the bitter in his words. The irony of the situation made his stomach shatter.

“Yeah, curly is-”

“Curly?” Gemma asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I never learned your name.” Louis told Harry apologetically.

“It’s Harry. But it’s okay if you call me curly, I don’t mind.”

“Okay, then, curly. I’m Louis.” The older boy said as he stud up and went to offer his hand to Harry who shook it. The younger boy felt electricity at the touch; they had never touched before.

“I know.” Harry replied. This wasn’t going to be a good thing.

xxx

After that he went to his room. He had been in there doing his homework on his bed when he heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.” He yelled and Gemma appeared ay the doorframe.

“Hey, Haz.”

“What’s up, Gems?” He said as he made room in the bed for his sister.

“Louis just left. He sends you his goodbyes” Gemma said.

“Um, okay. Tell him goodbye from me next time you’ll see him” Harry replied and pocked his tongue out.

“You cheeky bastard” Gemma pocked his side. “So, what do you think about him?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know him!”

“You guys had met before. C’mon! We never just talk anymore, you and me.” She pushed.

“Okay... I think he’s a nice guy. He only told me about this girl he liked because be bumped into each other in the library, where I hope he was waiting for you.” Actually, Harry hoped Louis wasn’t waiting for his sister. That way he could began to think the older boy was a pig who fooled around with lots of girls, Gemma’d break up with him, and Harry would forget his stupid crush.

The way his sister was beaming made his hopes flatten.

“You know, I wanted to introduce him to mum first” She said resting her head on the pillow. “But I’m glad you like him. I was worried about it.”

“You shouldn’t have, Gems” He gave her an attempt of a smile.

“Sooo...”

“Sooo?” He parroted her raising an eyebrow.

“What’s going on in your life? Do you like someone?”

“Nop.” He answered way too fast.

“Harry, don’t lie to your sister!” She demanded. Alright, he needed to tell someone after all.

“Well, I like this boy...” He began.

“But?”

“He’s straight.” He was expecting Gemma would drop the subject after that.

“Oh, Haz!” She hugged him. “Are you sure?”

“He’s got a girlfriend, Gems.” Maybe this was a little like play with fire, but in the bottom of his heart, he knew he needed to talk about it.

“That’s never a guarantee. Did you tell him who you feel?”

“No!”

“Do you speak with him or you are more like a creepy secret admirer?”

“I speak with him but I can’t tell him! Thanks for calling me creepy, by the way.” He sighed. “It’s just a crush. It’ll go away.”

“You sure?”

_No_. “Absolutely.”

Xxx

For the next few days Harry came back home after rehearsals to find Louis already there. The coach was sick and the team wasn’t entraining.

“C’mon, babe. Let’s play football, I need to keep practicing.” He had insisted Gemma on the fourth day.

“I don’t want to, besides I got a paper due tomorrow.”

Harry wondered why she was on the living room snogging Louis if she had things to do, but didn’t express it out loud. He had just went downstairs to grab something to eat and now planned to return to his room.

“How about you, curly?”

“Uh?” He asked and Gemma laughed.

“Please, Harry sucks at football. You’ll be better kicking the ball against the garage’s wall!”

“Don’t be like that; I’m sure his play is just fine. What do you say, curly? Would you practice with me?”

“Yeah, sure.” Again, this wasn’t going to be good.

It wasn’t so bad after all. They just kicked penalties for a while. Harry offered to be the goalie during the whole practice, but Louis insisted he should play too; it’ll be only fair even if Harry wasn’t any good kicking and didn’t need to practice neither.

It became usual for them to play together after that; the coach kept ill during two weeks. Harry began to get better on it, never as good as Louis but he could see skills improving.

Okay, more often than not Harry stumble and fell. On the second Sunday, he went down and took Louis with him; the older boy ended up laying on the grass with Harry on the top, facing him.

“Sorry” Harry apologized pouting.

A warn smile appeared on the footballer’s face, “No biggie.”

Harry was supposed to stand up then. He couldn’t, though. No with Louis so close and looking at him like that. It wasn’t possible. He was looking at the younger boy straight in the eyes with a fond expression. He swallowed and opened his mouth as he was planning to say something.

“Dinner is ready!” Anne, Harry’s mother, shouted from the house’s door.

Both boys got up and went inside without a glaze at the other.

“I should get going. There is a big storm coming and my mum doesn’t like me to drive with such a bad weather.”

“Oh, Lou!” Gemma went to hug his boyfriend and he reciprocated by squeezing her by the waist. “Can’t you stay for a little while? We haven’t been together for weeks with my little brother monopolizing you and all.”

“You could always spend the night.” Anne intervened before Louis could answer.

“You’d be okay with that?” Louis was surprised.

“As long it’d be in Harry’s room, of course.”

“You’d be okay with that, curly?” He turned to Harry, “I don’t want to be an imposition.”

“You wouldn’t. You can sleep with me.”... _anytime_. Control yourself, Harry.

The thing was that, at this point, Harry not only liked Louis nor had a crush on him, but he had kind of fallen in love with his sister’s boyfriend too. He was glad Louis was happy and that he made his sister happy, though he couldn’t help the twinge he felt on his chest every time they exchange “I love you”s, kissed or simply cuddled.

If this were any other person, Harry would say it was unfair, that he saw Louis first. If this were another boy, he wouldn’t doubt in run and scream his feelings to the older boy. But this wasn’t a boy; Louis liked girls. And he wasn’t with a random girl, he was with Gemma. Gemma, his sister. Gemma who had a noble heart, who had always been there for Harry, who deserved the best because she was the best.

Something needed to be done. Maybe he should start avoiding Louis. That wasn’t really an option; the guy was always on his house. Maybe if he told Gemma... No. If his sister found out about his feelings, she’d break up but Louis and that’d only lead to three unhappy persons instead of just one.

After dinner Harry fixed up his spare mattress for Louis. Nevertheless, the older boy only used it for a couple of minutes before Gemma came looking for him and invited him to her room.

Harry didn’t want to think what was happening there; he was far to occupied by being pathetic hugging a pillow that had Louis’ aroma.

Xxx

The night of Aiden’s party came and the band played five songs and then just enjoyed the party. It was a little bit lazy of them but, hey, they were doing it for free.

Gemma had gone to their father’s place for the weekend, so his sister missed the show. It was okay, she had been to most of their gigs. The issue was that Harry had looked forward to see Louis there. No Gemma meant no Louis.

It was fine, really. Harry had lived sixteen years without the older boy, and he could also stand a night. He just had pictured himself singing and looking at Louis in the crowd smiling at him. But that, of course, was too much to ask.

He didn’t let that detail ruined his night, though. Harry chatted with a lot of people and danced a few songs. Niall and the other members of the band were nowhere to be seen so he seized the opportunity to talk with people he never had the chance at school and make some new friends.

He was discussing the World Cup’s song with Liam Payne when he saw him. Louis was there. And he was wasted, Harry could tell by the way he was leaned against the wall and almost falling. Zayn was next to him, but the guy was busy talking to some girls. It seemed like Louis was on their group even he didn’t look interested. So Harry excused himself from Liam and went towards the older boy’s direction.

“Curly!” Louis almost yelled when he noticed him. His eyes were glowing and half closed because of the alcohol. As soon as he was close enough Louis through himself at him. “I saw your band, you were amazing!” He said against Harry’s neck.

“You... you saw us?” Harry was perplexed, Louis was hugging him.

“Of course, I told you I would.” Louis replied without an attempt of separate from him.

Harry felt warmness possessing his whole body; maybe he’ll never mean to Louis what the older boy meant for him, but he did care for Harry. And right there, that moment, they were the closer they’d ever be. There were a lot of people around them, but for Harry only the two of them mattered. He allowed himself to grab Louis by the waist tightly and just hug him like that.

He didn’t know how long they remained in that position, but before it was enough, Harry heard Louis call him. “Curly?”

Harry peeked up from the floor to look at Louis’ eyes. Everything around them seemed to be moving in slow motion. He couldn’t help himself and glanced at the older boy’s lips, watched them turn into a smile. “Zayn is taking me home. Do you need a ride?”

As soon as he processed the words, the spell was broken. He’d fantasy for the rest of his life about what could have happened if he just had kissed Louis a moment ago. “No, I’m fine. Niall’s here.”

“Okay,” Louis said retuning to the wall, “we are leaving in ten minutes, let me know if you change your mind.”

Harry, still dazzled, could only nod.

xxx

Harry did not felt well the days after that. He needed to get over Louis. Not only for his sister, but also for himself. He refused to spend more time pinning over an impossible. It was easier said than done, though. He cried and felt sorry for himself for the rest of the weekend until Sunday night, when Gemma came back and forced him to left his room and watch a movie in her’s.

He froze when he saw Louis sat on his sister’s bed. “Hi, curly”. The older boy greeted.

“Um, hi.” He said shyly and took sit on the other side of the bed, leaving enough space between him and Louis for, like, three Gemmas. He should have guessed the couple was going to met again as soon as she were back on the town.

“Harry here, got a heartbreak” Gemma explained to Louis.

“Gems!” Harry protested.

“That’s right. You should at least tell the other person you liked them and be rejected to count. You’re just being a coward.”

“Don’t be so hard on him. It took me forever to tell you that I liked you” Louis defended him. It didn’t exactly make him feel better.

“And look how it ended up.” She said and leaned to give Louis a peck on the lips. “Anyways, we are going to distract him with our company and a movie. Wait right here, I’m bringing us something to eat”. She announced and left the room.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Louis enquired; it was like he didn’t know if he was allowed to ask.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Yeah, that’s the problem.”

“Oh, I see.” Silence. “And you don’t want to make something for the situation to change?”

“Not seeing the point.”

“Try.” Louis sited up from the wall next to the bed.

“What?”

“You heard me, curly. Try. Tell her how do you fell” _Her_. _You have no clue_. “You are funny, smart and handsome. Harry, you are the whole packaged. Maybe she’ll reject you, yes, but what is the worst thing that can happen? If she turns you down, in the worse of the scenarios, you end up like right now. Just don’t surrender before trying.”

Harry was blushing, but Louis didn’t know was he was talking about. “The person has someone else.”

“Oh”. Louis sat back against the wall again.

“Oh, indeed” Harry parroted with a sad smile. “Thanks anyways. It means a lot to me”.

“Maybe, there is a way...”

“Nop,” Harry interrupted, “trust me when I say, there is not.”

In that moment Gemma entered with a tray full of junk food. “I forbid you to think about him for the next two hours, Harry.”

“ _Him_?” Louis asked.

“Gems!”

“Oh, sorry.” She apologised to her brother and asked her boyfriend: “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No! Of course I don’t. I had no idea, that’s all.”

During the movie the couple was respectful enough of Harry’s suffering for not to kiss or cuddle in front of him. He didn’t what to think about what they could be doing while those couple of times in which he went to the bathroom.

xxx

The next day was no school thanks to fumigation. So Harry woke up late and didn’t realize he phone was missing until a couple minutes before lunch. He turned his room upside down and finally arrived to the conclusion he had left it at Gemma’s room.

He went there to get it back. His sister didn’t actually mind him going into her room as long it was for this kind of thing so he didn’t bother to check if she was inside.

She was, and not alone.

He found her on top of Louis, straddling him, while the boy laid shirtless in the bed on his back. There were hands everywhere, moving too fast for Harry to follow with his curious gaze. Just when it seemed that Louis was about to pull over Gemma’s shirt, Harry spoke up.

“Sorry.” The couple turned quickly to look at him.

“What do you want?!” His sister asked in an exasperated tone, not bothering to get down of her boyfriend.

“I’m looking for my phone?” He avoided eye contact.

“Oh, I saw it earlier on the floor...” Gemma got up to help with the search.

“I think it’s under my shirt” Louis contributed keeping his gaze on the ceiling. The guy was still on bed, as soon Gemma left him, he had covered himself to his waist with the duvet that had been only covering his legs when Harry first came.

Harry fond the shirt on the floor and picked it up. Louis was right, the phone was there. “Found it! I’ll leave you alone, then.”

He was at the door when he heard his sister’s reply: “Knock first next time!”

xxx

Lunch was awkward. For him at least, Gemma didn’t seem bothered but Harry refused to make eye contact with her or Louis. He couldn’t wait to finish and get back to his room. But of course he couldn’t.

“Are we playing football today, curly?” Louis asked when they were done, voice and eyes hopeful.

He shook his head. “Can’t. Got lots of homework to do.”

Louis gave the impression of being disappointed and after a couple of seconds of silence he added: “Listen, about earlier... I know if I saw one of my sisters in that situati-”

“No, no, no. It has nothing to do with it!” Harry raised his hands, in denial. It had everything to do with that, but no in the way Louis thought. “I really have been procrastinating my homework.”

“Oh, okay. Just thought you may be mad at me or something.”

“Never.”

xxx

On Tuesday the football team came back to practice again. Seriously, what did the couch had had? They should have gotten a substitute. How come the school had left the team without practice for so long during football season?

Anyways...In conclusion, Harry had turned down his last practice with Louis yesterday. God, he was so stupid.

That evening, the band called quits early because a big storm was coming.  Lucky as Harry was, it began to rain when he wasn’t even halfway home.

He was already soaked when a car pulled over next to him on a stop. It was Louis’ car.

“Curly, come in! I’m taking you home.” The older boy announced after lowed the window.

“It’s okay, I can walk.”

“No sense, I’m already going to your place anyways.” Oh, right. Harry gave in and went inside the car.

“I’m all wet” He said pouting.

“It doesn’t matter, curly.” Louis shrugged. “I’m not letting you catch a cold.”

“Thanks.”

Louis tried to make small talk a couple of times, but Harry only gave monosyllabic answers, so the older boy settled himself to drive in silence. Harry was tense, he tried but he couldn’t keep up the conversation.

Louis smelled so good. The practice was dismissed because of the rain, he had already taken a shower before his date with Gemma, and he was going to be earlier than she expected him to be. He was taking her to the movies and dinner, he told Harry. He only nodded in response.

“Can I ask you something and you promise to be honest?” Louis broke the silence.

“Yeah.”

“The boy... that boy you have a crush on... it’s me?” Louis took forever to finish that sentence but Harry already knew what he was going to ask when he made the first question.

“Yep.” There was no point in laying. He couldn’t look at the other boy, though; he focused his attention on the window.

“I’m sorry, curly.” Louis sounded really sad. Not judgmental, no disgusted, just sad.

“It’s okay.” Harry said, defeated. _Actually, it isn’t_. “It is what it is.”

They drove in complete silence to Harry’s home after that.

xxx

It had been more than ten days since the last time he saw Louis.  He hadn’t came over; it was always Gemma going to his, or them meeting on a public place, but never Louis coming to Harry’s. He couldn’t be found on school either, not that Harry was looking for him; he just liked to see the older boy around.

It was on the eleventh day, a Saturday, when he found Louis sat on the very same couch he did when he first found out the older boy was dating Gemma. And he was again alone; his sister shouldn’t be too far away, though.

“Oh, curly,” Louis said surprised, “I’m sorry, Gems told me you were going to Niall’s.”

“Are you avoiding me?” Harry got closer to the couch.

“I... I thought it was for the best, you know?” He sounded shameful. “Didn’t want you to be uncomfortable at your own house.”

“That’s stupid, Louis.” He waved the older boy off. “If you and Gems work out, you’ll eventually move in together and have children; you’d build a family. You can’t avoid visiting her just ‘cos I’m in love with you.

“You are righ- Wait, you are _in love_ with me?” Louis seemed taken aback.

Harry froze where he was standing. He opened his mouth to deny it but all he could do was run upstairs. Stupid, stupid. Part of him wished Louis would call for him, but it didn’t happen.

When he passed by Gemma’s room, he heard her talking with a friend on the phone. “I’m telling you: tonight is the night!... No, never.... Well, he was pretty eager the other day but Harry interrupted us... No, we had been talking about it... Yes, I shove! Mandy, please!... It’s not ‘just sex’, it’ important!”

Harry ran to his room after that; he had already heard too much. Gemma and Louis were having sex tonight for the first time together. He hasn’t thought about it before. If he was honest, it surprised him that they haven’t had sex already. Knowing that it hadn’t happened but it was in fact happening that night was destroying him.

He spent the evening on bed trying to sleep but crying his heart out instead. Stupid. He should have lied when Louis asked. There was no point in laying but what had the truth brought him? Hopeless, nothing more.

He hasn’t even close to be done feeling sorry for himself when he heard a car pulling over and a door being snapped. It was only half an hour since they left but Gemma was already back. Wow, that was fast. Seriously? This guy fucked his sister and just brought her back like some kind of package?

He was thinking about how a pig Louis Tomlinson was when he heard his sister cry. Harry immediately got up and went to her room. She was in bed in foetal position.

“Gems? What happened?”

“Louis broke up with me” She managed to say between tears. “I don’t get it; everything was fine earlier. Actually, no, he had been acting weird these couple of weeks, but I just thought he was tired from football”.

Guilt overcame Harry. It was his fault. He and his stupid feelings. Hug his sister was the only thing he managed to do. He needed to fix it.

xxx

On Monday, he suspended the band’s rehearsal. Instead, he went to see Louis on the locker room. He knew Louis had his last class on the school’s furthest building to the field; he always was the last one on arrive and they could talk alone.

He waited outside for the older boy five minutes until he saw the sun kissed skin coming over. He could tell when Louis noticed him for the way he ducked his head.

“I need to talk to you.” There was no time to ‘hi’s.

“Can’t, I have practice.” Louis shook his head and entered to the locker room. Harry followed him.

“Why did you break up with my sister?” He was decided to stay firm.

Louis began to change in front of him and Harry looked away.

“You were right. If Gems and I lasted, we’d get to see each other always. And... I thought you just liked me, didn’t know you were in love with me. That wouldn’t be fair.”

Harry waited a moments and looked at Louis then. The older boy was already dressed again, and he was staring at Harry.

“It isn’t fair to Gemma to lose her boyfriend just because of my meaningless feelings!”

Louis came closer to Harry. “Don’t say that, your feelings aren’t meaningless, curly.”

Harry shook his head. “There is no point of you breaking up with her. She’s suffering; I don’t want her to felt like this, Louis.”

“I can’t get back with her again. That’s not happening.”

“Why?” They were in front of the other one at the moment, looking into the other one’s eyes.

“It’s complicated.”

“Tell me.” Harry whispered.

“I like you” Silence. Harry processed what the older boy just said and took a step back. “I don’t have any ulterior motives to be telling you this; I wasn’t planning on letting you know it.”

“You... you like me?” Half of Harry was happy and the other half was about to crumble.

Louis nodded. “Again, I’m not asking you to go out with me or anything. I couldn’t ask you to do that to your sister, but I couldn’t keep dating her, not when you have feelings for me.”

“I don’t get it,” Harry shook his head, “are you gay?”

“I don’t know what I am, curly.” Louis took a deep breath. “I just know there was this fantastic girl I thought I really liked her, loved her even. And suddenly that wasn’t enough, that wasn’t _it_ , you know? I had literally dreamt of that smile and those dimples but they weren’t hers. I thought I just really liked you, in a brotherly way, but one night the dream showed me a whole face and it wasn’t Gemma’s; and all made sense. I still felt attracted to her; I just realized that she wasn’t the one. May be I’d find the right girl one day, I thought. And when I found out about you... There was no point. It wasn’t fair for anyone. So... That’s it.” Louis looked down.

Before he was conscious of his actions, Harry was pulling Louis’ face up by his chin and kissing him. The older boy didn’t doubt in kissing him back. Sweet, gentle, velvety lips brushing a set of inexperienced but eager and loving ones.

“Sorry for taking so long in figure it out.” Louis said with an apologetic tone.

They say their goodbyes. Forever.

Wow, that sounded way too tragic. They made it a few things clear: if anybody asked, they hadn’t kissed and there was no way they’d get together; they couldn’t do such a thing to Gemma.

xxx

He went back home and straight to his room. That was really happened and he felt worse than ever. He had been the reason of his sister’s hearbreak, and his feelings were reciprocated but he couldn’t be with Louis. Nobody’ve told him love was like that.

There was a knock at the door. “Harry, can I come in?” Gemma asked.

“Sure.” She went inside and took sit on the bed, next to him. “What’s up?”

“Nothing, I was so wrapped out in the Louis’ issue that I never asked you how things were with your guy.” She offered a small smile.

“He’s not my guy!” He couldn’t help but blush. It was kind of cruel, the whole situation. “We can mop together.”

“Oh, you talked to him?” Harry nodded. “Did he reject you?” She half hugged him.

“Not really, but I don’t think we could ever be together, if I’m honest.” He admitted.

“Why is that?”

He ducked his head. “It’s complicated. Let’s just leave it that way.”

“Hell no, Harry! You deserve to be happy, if there is something, anything you can do to being with him, you _must_ do it!”

“I’m not so sure...”

“Harry, if this were just some stupid crush, you would have forgotten about him long ago. At least _try_ , dammit!”

She kept pushing him until he accepted to go for it. And, according to her, it had to be in that very moment, so he got up and went to Louis place. He felt guilty but he was determined to follow his heart now.

When Louis opened the door he was surprised of seeing Harry there. He younger boy explained himself and both boys had a deep talk. They couldn’t nor wanted ignore their feelings, but they would ask for Gemma’s blessing before doing anything. It was only fair, especially since the girl still was hurt from the break up.

They decided they should hang out more before facing Gemma. If they told her, got together and a week later break up, all would have been in vain. So Harry stayed at Louis’ for a movie. And they happened to kiss twice. They tried not to, but there was some magnetic force that was stronger than them.

They were on their little world when Louis’ phone began to buzz. He picked up, nodded and said “Okay, I’ll open you the door.” He hung up and turned to Harry: “That’s was your sister, she’s outside and want to talk. What do you want to do?”

“I can’t tell her yet!” Harry panicked.

“Okay, calm down. Just hide on my closet. I’ll let her in.” Louis left the room and Harry obeyed. Not even a minute later the older boy was back on the room with Gemma behind him.

“I need an explanation.” Wow, they really were brother and sister.

“Gems...” Louis sounded tired.

“No, no Gems me, mister. Tell me.”

“Alright.  I fell in love with somebody else.” Louis admitted.

“I knew it! I know you were cheating on me, you litt-”

“No!” Louis stopped her. “I didn’t cheat on you. I fell for someone else but I never even thought of acting on it” He defended himself.

“So, are you so good person that you left me?” She asked in a defying tone.

“It wasn’t fair for you, Gems.” Louis looked down.

“I don’t care” Her voice had something else. Determination? Hope? Harry couldn’t tell.

“What?” Louis sounded as lost as Harry.

“I want you back; I’ll do anything you want me to do.”

“There is nothing you can do. Besides you deserve someone you loves _you_ , and only you. You are awesome and shouldn’t beg for love. Nobody should.” Louis tried to hug her but she pulled away.

“If I’m that awesome why you don’t want me?”

Louis glanced at the closet where Harry was hiding before answering, “I guess we aren’t meant to be.” He made a pause to hug her, this time she let him. “All I ever told you was truth, though. I did love you, but I realized now it wasn’t in the way I thought it was. I really hope we could still be friends.”

Harry listened in the closet to his sister cry. After a while Gemma left and he came out. Louis told him to wait a little bit before to follow her, just in case. They said goodbye with a long and tight hug. He really needed to talk to Gemma. Every minute it passed was only making it worst.

xxx

When Harry went back home, he found Gemma crying on his bed. “Went to Louis’.” She explained. “It hurts so much. I didn’t realize I was losing him. What did I do wrong?” He hugged her.

After a while she seemed to remember why Harry has left. “How the thing went with you mysterious boy went?”

He tried but he could contain a small smile. “We did talk...”

“That’s so great, Haz, I could’t be happy for you!”

“Not so fast. There are things we still need to figure out first. We don’t know if we are going to ever be together. But it’s clear we both like each other.”

“I don’t get it, why are you guys making everything so difficult?”

That was it. That was the moment. Harry took a deep breath and let it out: “The boy is Louis.”

Gemma’s expression changed for complete. “What?!” Harry remained in silence, he was scared. “You are the one who stole my boyfriend?!”

“I didn’t mean to, Gemma,it wasn’t like that; it just happened.” He raised his hands and shook them in front of him as if defending himself.

“So you stole your sister’s boyfriend but you didn’t mean to? I can only imagine what you’ll do if you just propose it to yourself, then!” She grabbed her phone and called Louis, she was hysterical. “Hi, Lou,” She said to the phone, suddenly sounded so calm and peaceful, “I was just calling to ask you if you think of me when you fuck my little brother.” He didn’t hear Louis’ reply. “Did you just used me to get into his pants? Such a master plan, you should have gone straight to him, he’s a slut after all.” She hung up not giving the other boy time to answer.

He was hurt. He knew she was too and that she didn’t actually mean what she was saying; she should felt betrayed. But that didn’t change the fact of how he was felling. Gemma has locked herself in her room and Harry could hear her crying, he was crying too.

The doorbell rang and Harry went to see who he was. It didn’t surprise him to see Louis. The hugged and when they parted, the older boy asked “where is she?”

“At her room.” Harry leaded the way, Louis was close behind.

“Gems, open the door.” Louis requested gently.

“It’s open.” They both went inside. She was on the very same position Harry has found her when Louis broke up with her. Louis went to sit next to her, on the bed. She still was just laying there.

“Gems?” Silence. “I need you to know I didn’t use you. I dated you because I liked you so much... I swear I didn’t know Harry was your brother at the time and I don’t think I had feelings for him either; I barely know him.” His voice was calm and comforting.

“You never liked me” Gemma let out between sobs. He seized the opportunity to hug her.

“I did, there was something special about you but I couldn’t put a finger in what it was. Maybe was a mistake of me to call it love. An honest mistake.”

“Do you love my brother?”

“I think I do, let’s just don’t tell him yet, just in case” He winked at Harry.

Gemma kept crying and Louis padded his back. Harry took sit on the other side of her.

“We aren’t going to be together if you are not okay with it, though.” The older boy commented.

“I... I felt better, well, a little bit, now that I have a real explanation.” She said, letting his brother comfort her too. “Nevertheless, I guess it’ll take a time until I’ll be fully okay with the idea.”

“That’s okay.” Louis affirmed his voice full of affection. Harry already could picture him taking care of their children. Wow again, that’s a little too forward.

“Sorry for the name-calling, Haz.”

“No biggie. I understand.”

The three of them reminded cuddled for a while until Gemma stopped crying and feel asleep. Harry and Louis left her alone to rest and agreed on the details for their very first date. They didn’t know when were they having it, but now it was a fact that it was happening soon.

**Author's Note:**

> My goal in life is that you didn't notice English is not my first language. I'm sorry for the grammar mistakes, though. Let me know if you find any, please.


End file.
